Building on the success of last year’s debut, the second edition of the New York Film Festival Convergence transmedia section will feature the world premiere of Eline Jongsma and Kel O’Neill’s EMPIRE.

Shot in ten countries over four years, EMPIRE employs a broad range of storytelling techniques—including nonfiction filmmaking, multi-channel video projection, and experience design—to unearth the contemporary aftershocks of the world's first brush with global capitalism.

By turns epic and intimate in its approach, EMPIRE explores the ways in which the conditions of past continue to define our lives in the present.

A hidden synagogue in the mountains of Indonesia. A Dutch-style village in the Sri Lankan rainforest. A white separatist enclave in the South African desert. These are just a few of the communities brought to light in EMPIRE, an immersive documentary project that examines the still-unfolding legacy of Dutch colonialism.

EMPIRE videos and installations will be on display September 28 – 30 throughout NYFF at several venues on the Lincoln Center campus including the Film Center, Walter Reade Theater, and Alice Tully Hall. Viewers are invited to chart their own course through the work, and to draw their own thematic connections as they go and then join Directors Eline Jongsma and Kel O’Neill for a discussion about the genesis of this one of a kind experiential documentary.

Please join directors Eline Jongsma and Kel O’Neill in a special guided press tour of the project on Saturday, September 28th at 3pm. Participants in the tour are asked to meet in the lobby of the Elinor Bunin.

Eline & Kel will also be participating in a discussion with Nicolas Rapold about the genesis of this one of a kind experiential documentary at 4pm on Saturday, September 28th at the Elinor Bunin amphitheater. Press are welcome to attend.

To request a press pass to the tour and/or panel discussion, or if you are interested in an interview with the directors please email Gerilyn@Brigademarketing.com

ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS

Eline Jongsma & Kel O’Neill are a married Dutch-American filmmaking team focused on cross-platform storytelling. They work as a two-person crew, and film, edit, research and produce all of their work by themselves. They spent 2010-2013 travelling more than 140,000 kilometers by car, boat and airplane through Asia, Africa, Oceania and the Americas while filming Empire. Before creating Empire, Eline and Kel were the US Correspondents for VPRO Television’s Prix Europa-winning documentary series “Metropolis.” Their journalism work has appeared in the Huffington Post, Vice and The Creators Project. Their videos and installations have been presented by museums, galleries and festivals throughout the world, including: the Los Angeles Film Festival (LAFF); the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA); the International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam (IABR); Apex Art, New York; Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town; Jogja National Museum, Yogyakarta; Khoj, New Delhi; and CBK Zuidoost/Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam (SMBA). Before they began working together, Eline worked as a fine art photographer, and Kel worked as an actor in independent film.

ABOUT NYFF CONVERGENCEFocusing on the intersection of technology and storytelling, NYFF Convergence offers audiences and creators the unique opportunity to experience a curated selection of some of the most exciting immersive storytelling projects being produced today.